Category Archives: food

november community dinner

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I finally attended a community dinner at Liberty Market (instead of working it).

It was so delicious!

The food was fantastic, and so was the sangria service.

I had a great time hanging out with my co-workers.

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this is willy and ashley-they’re married.

willy is silly.

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a picture of ashley. she’s pretty.

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this is my boss joe. (we also ride scooters together.)

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travis and taylor. (travis is also known as prickly pete during no shave november.)

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this is me and becca. she was the one who did my wedding hair.

she more pictures of the rest of the night and the food here.

soup

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this is one of my favorite dinners to make. it’s a hearty soup with big flavors.

sausage, kale, chickpeas, tomatoes…

serve it with crusty, buttered bread…

top with a drizzle of olive oil, chopped onions, and parmesan cheese…

delicious.

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GnT

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I love a gin and tonic.

I suspect it has a lot to do with my swing band days, but nevertheless…

I heard about this gin called Hendrick’s which had the aroma of cucumber. I had to try it.

In my search for it, I found an organic tonic water sweetened with agave syrup to compliment it.

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burger daze

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I’ve been photographing the burgers that Chef Traina’s been creating at the Liberty Market where I work. It’s been a great way to play with my new lens! I’ve been having a blast doing it, and I even was able to create my own burger which will be featured on August 26th. The original burger was supposed to be The Ostrich Burger, but apparently, it’s ostrich breeding season. Which means you can’t get ostrich meat. Weird, I know. Anyhow, mine will feature mushrooms, a demiglace, and a special cheese that’s a cross between a blue and a brie. Chef’s really excited.

dinner party

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I was lucky enough to be invited to a mostly vegetarian dinner party thrown by Kelli (@africankelli). I had a great time meeting new people and eating great food. Kelli made gazpacho, beans, quesadillas, peanut butter cookies, and a beer can chicken (that somehow never got served). Chanelle (@iamchanelle) brought brownies, and everyone else brought beer and wine! Thanks for the invite Kelli! And thanks for everyone’s patience with me snapping away practicing with my new lens!

fractal gardening

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I’ve been participating in an experimental garden in east Gilbert. My gardening partner and I share the same love of beets and brussel sprouts. We planted pretty much every winter seed we could get our hands on which included borage (which we really have no idea what to do with although it makes lovely purple flowers which attracts a LOT of bees), and romanesco cauliflower which looks gorgeous and tastes fantastic. I prefer mine oven roasted.

gelato agogo

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This month my scooter club “The Lions of Scoodah” went on a tour of some local gelaterias here in Phoenix. We hit three gelaterias, an ice cream shop, a restaurant, and a coffee shop.

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This is Anthony. He is the manager at Joe’s Farm Grill and he just bought Joe’s old green 200.

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This is Monica and Andy. They are really cool and are going to tour Europe on their motorcycles together. They have little walkie talkie things they wear inside their helmets to communicate while riding.

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This is Joe telling us how to decide if the gelato is awesome.

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This is Beatrice. She studied how to make gelato in Rome. But now she makes it in Mesa. Try her Patron sorbetto-it has tequila in it.

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I don’t know this guy’s name, but he runs Gelato Makers in North Scottsdale. Also considered the winner in our tour.

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This actually is one of the few pictures of gelato I have. Well, sorbetto. I kept eating mine before I could take a picture.

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At Sweet Republic, I was tired of ordering the dark chocolate and lemon which were the flavors I sampled at every shop. Here I ordered pumpkin with a homemade marshmallow on top. Torched of course.

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We ate dinner at Radio Milano, stopped at Arleccino’s, and finished up at Cartel. Here is a picture of Cindy laughing, and the dude behind her is Glen who is the President of the Phoenix Metro Scooter Club.

See the rest of my photos on flickr.

tastecasting

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Awhile back ago, I twittered to Wildflower Bread Company that I was willing to help test their food out. They ended up inviting me to their fall taste testing, and they said they do it with Tastecasting. So I registered quickly (day of), and headed over to the 44th St. and Indian School location.

It turns out that Tastecasting is sort of a symbiotic relationship between food bloggers/twitterers and local/regional restaurants. You eat for free (and I mean eat-you should be in training), and the then you blog/tweet/FB/yelp about your thoughts. The restaurant gets a little physical traffic and feedback from it, and you get dinner and a little virtual traffic.

So here’s my photos:

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This is the founder of the company-and it is a local one. It was really cool sitting down over food and hearing him describe how he came to the Valley originally to work for Coffee Plantation, and ended up starting his own restaurant. Louis really loves food and is a cool guy. The company does a lot of community work and donates all the baked goods every night. Here he is holding the Apple Streusel Pancakes. They said it was syrup but it was a caramel-praline sauce. So thick and gooey.

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Here’s the Fiery Roasted Butternut Squash Salad. Quite a lot of heat. I liked the dried corn too-nice texture in a salad.

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This is the Turkey and Cranberry Walnut Stuffing Sandwich. With bacon. I think the bacon was a little over the top, but everyone else seemed to really like it. But hey, bacon’s really popular.

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I’ve been wanting to try this Butternut Squash Ravioli for some time, and finally got my chance! So good. The garlic bread was divine.

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We actually got to try three desserts; the only one I didn’t get a picture of was the Roasted Nut Pie. The other two are Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pumpkin Pie. That was the creamiest pumpkin pie I’ve ever had. And I loved the nut pie-not too sweet like some are. I prefer my cheesecakes plain, but if you like flavored ones, you’d like this one.

At the end of the night, they sent us all home with a giant bag of bread. I was able to try the dinner rolls, the Pumpkin Spice Bread, the Stuffing Bread, and the Cranberry Walnut Bread. They were all really good, but my favorite was the Cranberry Walnut Bread.

If you like food, blogging or twittering, meeting new people, supporting local businesses, and telling people about it, I encourage you to sign up. I had a lot of fun, and it is all around good for all.